Lonely Friday

Left to myself on a Friday night, the intake gets pretty nerdy: tuna sandwich, orange spice tea, and now finally - highlight! - a viewing (in large, silver cans) of Claude Vivier's "Lonely Child."

If you can't take the full 15 minutes, skip to the five minute mark and check the subtle interaction between singer and orchestra. When I don't look at the screen, I have trouble telling what's voice and what's instrument. (I love this effect in other genres, too.) Vivier apparently struggled with speech in early-childhood; I wonder if those extended vocal techniques refer to that time.

Anyway, more soon on Vivier, whose remarkable life and death is like something out of Dennis Cooper, and on his unusual (and often accessible) music, enriched by the back-story, but not in need of it.